One-piece cup dispenser

ABSTRACT

A cup dispenser comprises a one-piece, molded plastic holder having a hollow opening into which is telescoped a lower end of an elongated packing container or package having a stack of nested cups therein. Cams in the opposite sidewalls of the holder project inwardly to deflect flexible sidewalls of the container to define a restricted opening or throat having a dimension less than the diameters of rims for the cups with the result that the cups are held against sliding through and from the container. The lowermost cup may be grasped and pulled past the restricted throat with the cup rim deflecting radially inwardly as the cup is withdrawn. Stripper means in the form of inwardly extending projections may be provided on the holder beneath the cam for directly engaging and deflecting the cup rim prior to release of the lowermost cup from the holder.

United States Patent [72] Inventors Giaclnto C. DErcoli Park Forest, 111.; Joseph Petricek, Sr., La Mirada, Calif. [21] Appl. No. 851,824 [22] Filed Aug. 21,1969 [45] Patented Nov. 30, 1971 [73] Assignee Solo Cup Company Chicago, Ill.

[54] ONE-PIECE CUP DISPENSER 2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S. Cl 221/64, 221/63, 221/307 [51 Int. Cl 865d 83/00 [50] Field of Search 221/64, 63, 307, 287, 308, 310

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,081,177 5/1937 Hope 221/63 2689062 9/1954 Brown 221/307 X 2,861,717 11/1958 Vines 22l/307X 3,006,503 10/1961 O'Neil 221/307 3,069,048 12/1962 Easton et a1. 221/63 X 2,319,975 5/1943 Buttery 221/310 Primary Examiner-Lloyd L. King Asxixlan! Examiner-Thomas C. Culp, .lr. Allumey-Fitch, Even, Tabin & Luedeka ABSTRACT: A cup dispenser comprises a one-piece, molded plastic holder having a hollow opening into which is telescoped a lower end of an elongated packing container or package having a stack of nested cups therein. Cams in the opposite sidewalls of the holder project inwardly to deflect flexible sidewalls of the container to define a restricted opening or throat having a dimension less than the diameters of rims for the cups with the result that the cups are held against sliding through and from the container. The lowermost cup may be grasped and pulled past the restricted throat with the cup rim deflecting radially inwardly as the cup is withdrawn. Stripper means in the form of inwardly extending projections may be provided on the holder beneath the cam for directly engaging and deflecting the cup rim prior to release of the lowermost cup from the holder.

PATENTEBHUV 30 1971 FIGJ BI 73 7B JOSEPH PETRIGEK 8R.

INVENTQRS GIACINTO G. D ERGOLI JLIJM 6511150811711 ATTYS ONE-PIECE CUP DISPENSER This invention relates to cup dispensers and, more particularly, to a cup dispenser comprising a holder for supporting a packaging canon or container from which cups are withdrawn one at a time from a nested stacked position within the container. This invention also relates to a low-cost holder into which may be telescoped an end of the container having the cups therein and from which the cups will be withdrawn.

A dispenser for expendable paper or plastic cups should be inexpensive and yet be foolproof in its operation of dispensing cups one at a time without damage to the cups. Also, to facilitate the loading of a supply of cups in the dispenser, the dispenser should include a holder adapted to receive the container for the cups and utilize it as a holder for the cups, thereby eliminating the need for removing the cups from the container and stacking the cups in a separate holder. Expendable paper or plastic cups are normally conical or frustoconical in shape and are formed with a bead or rim at the top of the cup. The largest diameter portion of the cup is thus at the rim and most dispensers support the stack of cups to be dispensed by engaging at least the rim of the lower cup. To dispense a cup, the lower cup is withdrawn from the dispenser which causes inward deflation of the cup rim. If the cup dispenser exerts excessive force on the cup rim during dispensing, the rim will become permanently deformed and damaged and/or it will be difficult to withdraw the cup. Yet the dispenser should be designed to adequately support the stack of cups and to dispense the cups one at a time, even when a person withdraws the cup at an oblique angle to the vertical.

Of considerable importance to the commercial success of such a dispenser is that the holder be oflow-cost construction and preferably ofa one-piece construction which has no moving parts requiring service or maintenance. Additionally, it is preferred that the holder be formed of plastic which is clean, attractive and not subject to rusting as are metallic holders.

Accordingly, a general object of the invention is to provide a holder and a cup dispenser of the foregoing kind and a dispenser particularly useful for dispensing plastic cups.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description taken in connection with the drawings in which:

FIG. I is a perspective view of the dispenser embodying the novel features of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a holder used in the dispenser of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, longitudinal, cross-sectional view of the dispenser ofFlG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary, perspective view of a cam and stripper.

As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the invention is embodied in a cup dispenser 11 which includes a low-cost, one-piece holder 12 formed of molded plastic material into which is telescoped a packing container or package 14 having therein a stack of nested cups 15. The container I4 is of the conventional kind of paperboard or of fiberboard in which the cups are packaged and sold as distinguished from a separate tube or receptacle which is a permanent part of some dispensers. As the container 14 is inserted into the holder, cam means 17 (FIGS. 3 and 4) formed integrally with and projecting inwardly from walls 19 of the holder abut and deflect flexible container side walls 21 into a bowed shape to define a restricted opening or throat within the container having a dimension A less than that ofa cup rim 23 whereby the cups will be prevented from sliding past the restricted throat under the influence of gravity. The dispenser is of particular utility in dispensing plastic cups which, when deflected, push outwardly on the container walls with a greater force than paper cups will exert. The holder is provided with stripping means 25 in the form ofinwardly directed projections below the restricted throat for engaging and arresting the rim of each cup tending to move past it. A definite pull is required to pull the cup past the projections and causes a considerable inward deflection of cup rim which provides a good, definite impression to the user that a cup is dispensed. Some kinds of plastic cups may make a slight audible click as the cup rims expand after withdrawal from the holder. The stripper means 25 will also strip a second following cup from the lowermost cup and assure only a single cup is dispensed at a time.

Proceeding now with a more detailed description of the elements of the dispenser 11, the cam means 17 for bowing the container side walls 21 to hold the cup stack is in the form of elongated, longitudinally extending ribs such as ribs 27 located centrally in opposite side walls 29 of the holder. Preferably, an additional rib 31 is provided in a front holder wall 33 and a pair of ribs 35 are provided in the rear holder wall 37. The spaced pair of ribs 35 may be aligned with an opening 38 in the carton and extend into direct contact with the cups through the opening 38 and provide two spaced points of contact which resist turning or tilting of the cups within the container under an oblique directly withdrawing force. The sidewall ribs 27, however, project farther inwardly than the other ribs and provide the principal deflection of the container walls. Each of the respective ribs are formed only in the lower portion of the holder sidewalls and have a narrow cross-sectional thickness and project from the plane of its holder sidewall by one-eighth inch or less. This projecting distance is sufficient to bow the container walls 21 as the spacing between the holder walls closely corresponds to the containers side-to-side dimensions. Preferably, the ribs 27 are spaced apart by a distance less than the diameter of the cup rims so that the ribs are effective if some user should remove the cups from the container l4 and insert the cups into the holder without the container, or if a user should fail to insert the container sufficiently to contact the ribs and to be bowed thereby. The preferred use of the holder is with the container 14 which covers the containers from dust and other foreign matter and assists in the gripping of the cups.

To facilitate sliding of the lower edge of the container 14 past the upper edges of the ribs 27, 31, and 35 when the container is inserted into the holder, the ribs are tapered inwardly and downwardly, as best seen in connection with the illustrated rib 27 in FIG. 5, from an upper point 41 to a lower point 43 at which inner surfaces 45 on the ribs extend substantially vertically. Thus, the container being telescoped into the holder has its lower edge wall cammed gradually and inwardly into the bowed shape shown in FIG. 4. The rib 31 on the front sidewall 33 of the holder and the pair of ribs 35 on the rear wall 37 provide less bowing of the container side walls than is provided by the ribs 27 on the holder sidewalls 29. The dimension of the restricted throat is such that the lowermost cup of the stack is normally engaged at points spaced beneath the cup rim 23 of the lowermost cup.

When a cup is being withdrawn, its rim 23 flexes and deflects inwardly and then slides along the container walls engaging the rib surfaces 45 until it comes into engagement with the stripper means 25 which further deflects the cup rim inwardly. The stripper means then comes into direct stopping contact with the withdrawn cup. The stripper means 25 will hold the cup until a definite pull is exerted on the cup, and a plastic cup will actually snap past the stripper means giving the impression of a definite dispensing of but a single cup. Also, the stripper means 25 assures separation of the cups one from the other. Extra cups are often wasted and are an annoyance and nuisance to the user of the dispenser.

In the preferred form of the invention, the stripper means 25 includes a pair of projections 47 projecting inwardly from the holder side walls 29 at locations adjacent the bottom edges thereof. The projections 47 are generally wedge shaped with an uppermost inclined surface 49 extending downwardly inwardly to terminate a pointed edge formed at an intersection with a lower horizontal surface 51 which is substantially aligned with a plane defining the bottom of the holder. As best fasteners. The support 73 is seen in FIG. 2, the projections 47 extend inwardly about twice as far as the ribs 27 extend inwardly and the projections 47 are several times wider then the width of the ribs 27. The projections 47 also function to prevent reinsertion of a cup into the bottom of the holder as it is very difficult to slide the cup rim past the horizontally disposed, flat surfaces 51.

To limit the telescoping insertion of the container 14 into the holder 12, the latter has the stop means in the form of a stop flange 55 (FIG. 2) projecting inwardly from the walls of the holder along the lower edges of these walls. With the lower inserted edge of the container walls 21 abutting the stop flange 55, particularly at the corner locations, the container resists any further downward force tending to push it through the holder. The stop flanges S curve inwardly from opposite rounded corners 57 to define a four-sided opening at the bottom of the holder which is sufficiently wide to readily pass the cup rims 23. The stop flange 55 also adds rigidity to the holder.

Additional rigidity for the holder 12 is obtained by forming upper edges 59 (FIG. 3) with increased wall thickness and by forming an outwardly extending ledge 61 extending along the upper edge of the front holder wall 33. This front wall 33 has a centrally disposed, generally V-shaped groove which exposes a window 63 in the container package. The window 63 is usually covered with a sheet of transparent plastic so that the viewer may readily see when the container is low on cups.

The insertion of the container 14 into the holder 12 is facilitated by providing inclined guiding surfaces 65 which extend downwardly and inwardly toward the central opening defined by the holder walls. If desired, similar guiding surfaces may be provided along the rear wall 37 or front wall 33 of the holder.

The preferred holder 12 is also provided with means in the rear wall 37 which facilitates its mounting to a supporting wall or structure by means of a bracket, an adhesive tape or fasteners such as screws. More specifically, the rear wall is provided with a rearwardly extending key or support 73 (FIGS. 2 and 4) which has a rear, flat, vertically extending face 75 which is adapted to receive one side of a pressure sensitive adhesive which permits adhering the holder directly on a wall or supporting surface without the use of brackets or preferably formed with a key or dovetailed cross-sectional shape which will slide into a conventional wall mounted bracket (not shown) having a slot to accommodate the key-shaped support 73 and to grip the inwardly turned, oblique walls 77 on the support 73. The preferred key-shaped support 73 has an upper cross-sectional portion which is larger in dimension than the dimension of the lower portion thereof so that the support will not slide through the bracket slot. .Thus, the key-shaped support 73 may be inserted into an appropriately shaped groove in a bracket to fasten the holder in position to accept a container 14.

A longitudinally extending slot 79, as seen in FIGS. 2 and 4, is formed on the inside of the key-shaped support 73 and serves to accommodate screwheads (not shown) of screws inserted through apertures 81 and 83 in the upper and lower edges of the support. Thus, conventional screws may be disposed in these apertures 81 and 83 and tightened to force the rear, vertical support surface 75 flat against a supporting surface upon tightening of the screws. As the screwheads are rearwardly within the plane defined by the inner surfaces of the rear holder 37, the screwheads will not interfere with insertion of the carton 14 into the holder 12.

The packaging cartons 14 are conventional and are often substantially square cross section and made of thin, flexible paperboard or other fiberboard which is readily deflectable. Both the upper and lower ends of the cartons are normally sealed by conventional flaps 85. One form of the carton 14 has flaps attached to the carton side walls 21 along score lines (not shown) on the lower edge of the carton. The score lines facilitate the tearing of the flaps completely from the carton to leave the bottom of the carton completely open. The preferred carton has a thumbnail-shaped score line in its rear wall adjacent the rear flap score line to facilitate opening the carton and the removing of the bottom flaps and to provide the opening 38 through which will project the ribs 37 of the rear holder wall. Usually, the lower flaps are torn from the lower edge of the carton before it is moved into alignment and inserted to abut the inclined guiding surfaces 65 on the upper edges of the sidewalls 29 of the holder. The container sidewalls 21 slide readily within and have a close, adjacent relationship with the inner surfaces of the holder side walls. Thus, the container sidewalls 21 are positioned to abut the inwardly projecting camming ribs 27, 31 and 35 and deflect inwardly into a bowed shape for a sufiicient distance to assure that a restricted throat is formed having a dimension A less than that of the cup rims 23. This difference in dimension and the slight fractional forces between the lowermost cup and the container is sufficient to hold the stack against moving through the holder under the force of gravity. However, when inserting the container 14, the precaution is often taken of holding ones hand beneath the cups and container to prevent inertia forces from ejecting cups through the holder. The container thus covers the cups and maintains them in a relatively protected environment with only the exterior lower part of the lowermost cup being exposed below the dispenser.

To dispense a cup, a person grips the lowermost cup with his fingers and exerts a substantially downward force although there may be an oblique or horizontal force component. The thin-walled flexible plastic or paper cups will readily deflect inwardly as the rims move down along or engaged by the bowed container walls at the locations of the ribs. When the cup rim 23 travels downwardly and abuts the inclined surfaces 49 on the stripping projections, the cup rim must be deflected inwardly at the spaced projections to a considerable extent. By exerting sufficient force on the lowermost cup, it may be pulled past the stripping projections with a definite snaplike dispensing action. If a second cup is moving with the lower most cup, it will be caught and gripped at its rim 23 as the friction force between the cups will be insufficient to deflect the rim 23 of the second cup and pull it past the stripping projections. Thus, cups will be dispensed one at a time.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the holder 12 is a low-cost, molded, one-piece, plastic holder which is almost foolproof in operation and is adapted to handle flexible, thinwalled, seamless, plastic cups of the thermoformed kind although it may dispense seamed cups and paper cups. The low-cost, simple construction without moving parts results in commercial appeal to housewives and others interested in simplicity and economy. The stripping means provides a definite dispensing action and assures that only a single cup is dispensed at a time. The use of the packaging container for holding the cups for dispensing eliminates the need for a special cup-receiving tube and the cost thereof and provides gradual curved sliding contact with cups which does not damage the cup rims.

While a preferred embodiment has been shown and described, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit the invention by such disclosure but, rather, it is intended to cover all modifications and alternate constructions falling with the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A holder for dispensing cups one at a time for a stack of nested cups disposed within an elongated packing container having flexible sidewalls, said holder comprising a one piece, plastic holder body for attaching to a suitable support, said body having parallel front and rear walls and parallel sidewalls joined together at substantially right angle corners to encompass a lower end of said carton and defining a hollow interior into which is telescoped an end of said container, a head of greater cross-sectional thickness being formed at the top edges of said front wall andsidewalls to provide increased rigidity and strength for said holder, a downwardly extending opening being formed in the upper portion of said front wall to expose a window in said container to allow viewing of the interior of the container to determine when the container is low on cups, upwardly and outwardly inclined guiding surfaces at upper ends of at least one pair of said parallel walls to facilitate insertion of the lower end of said container into said hollow body, a stop flange means projecting inwardly and disposed adjacent the bottom of said holder and adjacent said corners and having an upper surface to abut and stop the telescoping movement of said container into said hollow, opposed cams projecting inwardly from both pairs of said walls of said holder body to deflect lower portions of said flexible container sidewalls inwardly to define a restricted throat having a dimension less than the rim diameter of the nested cups in the container and thereby holding said nested cups from sliding downwardly from said container and through said holder under the force of gravity, and wedge-shaped projections extending inwardly from oppositely disposed parallel walls of said holder body at a position below said throat and below said upper surface of said stop flange and projecting inwardly to an extent greater than said cams for engaging directly the lowermost cup rim and for deflecting the cup rim prior to release of the lowermost cup from the holder body.

2. A holder for dispensing cups one at a time from a stack of nested cups disposed within an elongated packing container having flexible sidewalls, said holder comprising a one piece,

plastic holder body for attaching to a suitable support, said body having parallel front and rear walls and parallel sidewalls joined together at substantially right angle corners to encompass a lower end of said carton and defining a hollow interior into which is telescoped an end of said container, a stop flange means projecting inwardly and disposed adjacent the bottom of said holder and adjacent said comers to abut and stop the telescoping movement of said container into said holder, opposed cams projecting inwardly from both pairs of said walls of said holder body to deflect lower portions of said flexible container sidewalls inwardly to define a restricted throat having a dimension less than the rim diameter of the nested cups in the container for providing gradually curved sliding contact with said cup rims and thereby holding said nested cups from sliding downwardly from said container and through said holder under the force of gravity, wedge-shaped projections extending inwardly from oppositely disposed parallel walls of said holder body at a position below said throat and below said upper surface of said stop flange and projecting inwardly to an extent greater than said cams for directly engaging the lowermost cup rim and for deflecting the cup rim with a snap action prior to release of the lowermost cup from the holder body.

* t i I! t Column Column Column Column Column Column Column Column Column Column Patent No.

Inventor(s) UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Dated Nov. 30. 1971 Giacinto C. D'Ercoli & Joseph Petricek, Sr.

3, line 4, line 4, line 4, line 4, line 5, line 5, line 5, line 6, line 6, line Signed and sealed this 1 8th (SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. Attesting Officer It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

64 after "holder" insert -wall.

15 "fractional" should be "frictional".

28 omit "paper".

63 "for" ,PSGCODCI occurrence, "should read from a 69 "carton" should be container-. (Claim 1) 5 "hollow" should be --holder-. (Claim 1) 8 "hollow" should be holder-. (Claim 1) l8 after "flange" insert --means-. (Claim 1) 4 "carton" should be -container--. (Claim 2) l9 after "flange" insert-means. (Claim 2) day of July 1972.

ROBERT GOTISCHALK Commissionerof Patents FORM PO-105D (10-69) USCOMM-DC OO376-P59 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE I"! O-flli-lll 

1. A holder for dispensing cups one at a time from a stack of nested cups disposed within an elongated packing container having flexible sidewalls, said holder comprising a one piece, plastic holder body for attaching to a suitable support, said body having parallel front and rear walls and parallel sidewalls joined together at substantially right angle corners to encompass a lower end of said container and defining a hollow interior into which is telescoped an end of said container, a bead of greater cross-sectional thickness being formed at the top edges of said front wall and sidewalls to provide increased rigidity and strength for said holder, a downwardly extending opening being formed in the upper portion of said front wall to expose a window in said container to allow viewing of the interior of the container to determine when the container is low on cups, upwardly and outwardly inclined guiding surfaces at upper ends of at least one pair of said parallel walls to facilitate insertion of the lower end of said container into said holder body, a stop flange means projecting inwardly and disposed adjacent the bottom of said holder and adjacent said corners and having an upper surface to abut and stop the telescoping movement of said container into said holders, opposed cams projecting inwardly from both pairs of said walls of said holder body to deflect lower portions of said flexible container sidewalls inwardly to define a restricted throat having a dimension less than the rim diameter of the nested cups in the container and thereby holding said nested cups from sliding downwardly from said container and through said holder under the force of gravity, and wedge-shaped projections extending inwardly from oppositely disposed parallel walls of said holder body at a position below said throat and below said upper surface of said stop flange means and projecting inwardly to an extent greater than said cams for engaging directly the lowermost cup rim and for deflecting the cup rim prior to release of the lowermost cup from the holder body.
 2. A holder for dispensing cups one at a time from a stack of nested cups disposed within an elongated packing container having flexible sidewalls, said holder comprising a one piece, plastic holder body for attaching to a suitable support, said body having parallel front and rear walls and parallel sidewalls joined together at substantially right angle corners to encompass a lower end of said container and defining a hollow interior into which is telescoped an end of said container, a stop flange means projecting inwardly and disposed adjacent the bottom of said holder and adjacent said corners to abut and stop the telescoping movement of said container into said holder, opposed cams projecting inwardly from both pairs of said walls of said holder body to deflect lower portions of said flexible container sidewalls inwardly to define a restricted throat having a dimension less than the rim diameter of the nested cups in the container for providing gradually curved sliding contact with said cup rims and thereby holding said nested cups from sliding downwardly from said container and through said holder under the force of gravity, wedge-shaped projections extending inwardly from oppositely disposed parallel walls of said holder body at a position below said throat and below said upper surface of said stop flange means and projecting inwardly to an extent greater than said cams for directly engaging the lowermost cup rim and for deflecting the cup rim with a snap action prior to release of the lowermost cup from the holder body. 